June 30, 2014|By DAVID OWENS, dowens@courant.com, The Hartford Courant

HARTFORD — James Glee promised his mother that 2010 would be the last summer he rode his motorcycle. He told her loved riding, even though it made her nervous.

Glee, 29, of East Haven, was riding his motorcycle on the Sisson Avenue off-ramp from I-84 at about 1 a.m. on Aug. 18, 2010, when he was struck by an SUV traveling the wrong way on the ramp.

The motorcycle was destroyed in the collision and Glee's body was thrown off the elevated ramp to a parking lot 61 feet below. Glee survived the fall and even joked with the paramedics and Hartford firefighters who worked to prepare his broken body for transport to St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center.

Despite surgery and other life-saving efforts, Glee died at about 5:30 a.m.

The man who struck him, Shawn Osinski, 54, of Essex, was sentenced Monday to four years in prison after pleading guilty in April to second-degree manslaughter with a motor vehicle. Osinski was driving drunk when he fatally injured Glee.

Prosecutor Anne Mahoney told the judge that Osinski was driving 50 to 58 mph at the time of the crash and that his blood-alcohol content was 0.14 about an hour after the crash. A person is considered legally drunk if their blood alcohol content exceeds 0.08.

Judge Joan K. Alexander told the friends and family of both men that her sentence did not reflect the loss Glee's family suffered, nor would it equate to the value of his life.

In sentencing Osinski to four years — he faced a minimum of 3 1/2 years in prison and a maximum of eight years under the terms of his plea agreement — Alexander told Glee's family that she did not think Glee would have been vengeful. At the same time, she said, she had to make it clear to the larger community that causing a death while driving drunk would result in a prison sentence.

Osinski, who had been told by his lawyers to say nothing as criminal and civil cases against him proceeded, paid close attention to the words of Glee's survivors, including his mother, Mary Esposito, his step-father, Nicholas Esposito, and his siblings and friends.

He listened as they described the pain Glee's death has caused their family, how he was a standout athlete at East Haven High School and Hofstra University, how he was generous and kind to his friends, a happy presence with a broad smile at family events, and how he was so important to his family.

"Since the day I lost my brother I feel like I've been dying inside," Nicole Esposito told the judge. She said she is angry and bitter over her brother's death. "I've grown to be a cold person," she said. "My happiness was stolen by the senseless actions of another."

When it came his time to speak, Osinski tuned to Glee's family and friends and immediately apologized for causing Glee's death and the pain he has caused them.

"My name is Shawn Osinski and I'm the reason we're all here today, unfortunately," he said. "There's nothing I can say here today that will make the pain and the grief of this loss any easier. My actions that night took him from not only his family and friends, but the world. We need more people like [him]."

Osinski's young daughter is battling cancer and undergoing chemotherapy, his lawyer William Gerace told the judge. Osinski is the child's primary caregiver and he will now be away from her. The fatal crash, Gerace said, has destroyed Osinski's relationship with the baby's mother and will leave him financially ruined. Gerace said Osinski has grieved from the time of the crash about causing Glee's death.

When he is released from prison, Osinski will be on probation for four years. While on probation, the judge ordered him to perform community service and to contribute $2,500 each year to the James Glee scholarship at East Haven High School.